Sunday, April 22, 2012

The Classic Car Show was held at Whiteman Park on Sunday 22nd April 2012. This is the largest classic car event in the West Australian calendar with about 1000 cars on display. It's normally held in March but for the first time was pushed out to April on account of the milder weather. All the usual club displays were there. I didn't take photos of everything of course, only the cars that interested me, so some of the clubs that attended aren't represented here. This year there were fewer unusual and American cars. British cars were very heavily represented.This was the Deek's public debut. We attended the show - which is by club invitation - with the Special Interest Vehicle Association (SIVA). SIVA is a small club whose members have an eclectic collection of vehicles. Attending the show were two Renaults, an NSU, a Messerschmitt, a Morris, a Lotus and a Willys Overland.The proud custodians. We can take little credit for the condition of the car, which owes its outstanding preservation to Marcelo and the original owner in South Africa. The DKW ran extremely well, very smooth with almost no smoke. She easily ran up to 60mph on the Tonkin Highway. We ran the engine a couple of times during the day for the spectators. Everyone was amazed how quiet she was.I think every South African and German who visited the show came past to share some nostalgic stories about DKWs. DKW is an acronym of many meanings - some of them not complimentary!

A French Amilcar sails past SIVA rowRichard's NSU Prinz III. This is an Australian built example. In the 1950s Prinz' were exported to Australia in pieces and then reassembled here. Unfortunately they were not able to compete with other small cars, such as the Mini Minor and, of course, the ubiquitous Holden. NSU were also unable to keep up a steady supply of parts to keep the cars on the road. http://www.nsuprinz.com/Peter's Renault CV4. A marvellous little French rear-engined car. http://www.renaultfan.org/renault-4cv.html. If you're in the market for a Renault CV4 restoration project, Alec Nash has one for sale for $2000. He can be contacted on 94933768.Zig's Messerschmitt KR200. Zig has two Messerschmitts - a bubble-top and rag-top. This bubble-top has an Australian customised vinyl hood. The Perspex bubble was very poorly suited to the harsh Australian sun and owners quickly complained about the sauna-like conditions inside the car. The importers responded by manufacturing a vinyl roof that could be attached to the dome. Apparently 25 Messerschmitts were sold through a dealer in Perth in the late 1950s, of which about a dozen survive. Sadly, when the dealership closed almost all the spares, including some bodies, were scrapped. The Messerschmitt was certainly the biggest drawcard of the display, attracting hordes of amused adults and children. http://www.messerschmitt.co.uk/This 1968 Saab 96 Monte Carlo was on display by the Saab Car Club of Australia. http://www.saabclub.org.au/ Saab cars were originally powered by two and three cylinder two stroke engines derived from the DKW. This car is powered by a 1498cc four stroke Ford Taunus engine during the transition period away from two strokes.Shelly tries out Alistair's Honda S600 for size. It's a sweet little machine. http://www.hondas600.com/ There is a white Honda S600 for sale in East Fremantle. It's apparently in good nick but has a Datsun engine. The owner can be contacted on 0422047376.

MotorcyclesThere was a much larger display this year by the Early America Motorcycle Club. http://www.earlyamericanmotorcycleclub.asn.au/The Harley-Davidsons and vintage Indians were very popular and drew quite a crowd. The bikes were periodically fired up and ridden around the display area near the SIVA stand. Disappointingly there were no other motorcycle club displays. Where is the Vintage Motorcycle Club representation? Maybe next year SIVA will pull out some scooters for display.